The 5 Best Ways to Run Windows on Your Mac

Find out which option best fits you

While macOS is made to run using Mac hardware, it is not the only operating system that can run on a Mac computer.

Plenty of other operating systems, including Window and Linux, will work on a Mac device. That makes the Mac among the most versatile computers you can buy. Here’s what we’d use to install Windows on a Mac.

Boot Camp

Supports Windows 7, 8.1, and 10

Windows runs natively on Mac hardware for best performance

Requires a full Windows license for the initial install.

Cannot run Windows and Mac OS concurrently.

Perhaps the best-known option for running Windows on a Mac is Boot Camp. Included free with your Mac, Boot Camp allows you to install Windows and then choose between Mac and Windows on startup.

Because Boot Camp runs Windows directly on your Mac’s hardware (there is no virtualization or emulation to be performed) Windows can run at the best possible speed your Mac is able to deliver.

Installing Windows on your Mac is no more difficult than installing Windows on a PC. Apple even provides the Boot Camp Assistant to partition the startup drive to make room for Windows as well as to install all the drivers Windows needs for special Apple hardware.

Virtualization

Run both macOS and a guest OS side-by-side.

Not limited to Windows; a large number of guest operating systems are supported.

Performance tuning and customization needed to achieve the best performance.

May impact the performance of your Mac.

Virtualization allows several operating systems to run on computer hardware at the same time. Virtualization abstracts the hardware layer, making it look like each operating system has its own processor, RAM, graphics, and storage.

Virtualization on the Mac makes use of a software layer called a hypervisor to emulate all of the underlying hardware. As a result, the guest operating system running on the virtual machine does not run as fast as in Boot Camp. But unlike Boot Camp, both the Mac operating system and the guest operating system run at the same time.

There are three primary virtualization apps for Mac:

• Parallels: The first to bring virtualization to the Mac. Parallels supports a wide range of guest OS, including Windows, Linux, and Mac.
• VMWare Fusion: Fusion is the Mac virtualization app offered by VMWare — a leader in virtualization tech. Fusion supports the installation of many different operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and macOS.
• VirtualBox: Oracle supports an open source virtualization app known as VirtualBox. This free virtualization app runs on multiple computer systems, including Mac. Like the other virtualization apps, VirtualBox can be used to run many different operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Installing the virtualization apps is similar to any other Mac app. Guest OS may be more involved with some customization required to obtain the best performance. All three apps have lively forums and support services to help with tuning the performance.

Easily Run Windows Applications on Mac OS X

If you are using Mac OS X and want to run Windows applications, the most popular option is to install Windows OS using Bootcamp, or run Windows in a virtual machine. Linux users will know that you can use Wine to install and run Windows applications natively. The good news is that Mac users can run Wine to install Windows applications as well. Wineskin is a Wine-tool ported over to the Mac platform. Check out how you can run Windows applications on Mac OS X.

Wineskin is simply an implementation of Wine at its core. For those who are not sure what Wine (an acronym for “Wine Is Not an Emulator”) is, it is a compatibility layer capable of running Windows applications on several POSIX-compliant operating systems, including Linux and Mac OS X.

Installation

The installation is pretty straight-forward.

1. Download Wineskin. The latest version as of this post is 2.5.12.

2. Extract the file and move the Wineskin app to your Applications folder. Open it.

On the first run, there won’t be any engine showing up in the list. Click the “+” button to download and install the latest engine. The engine is required to make the Windows applications work.

Once the engine is installed, you are ready to install Windows applications.

Installing Windows applications

Before you start, make sure you have the executable file of the desired Windows application with you. Note that Wineskin doesn’t support all the Windows applications out there. Check out Wine’s AppDB to see if the application you want is supported.

1. Click the “Create New Blank Wrapper” button and enter a name for this wrapper. In this example, we will be installing Peazip on Mac.

While creating the wrapper, it will prompt you to install mono package for running .Net applications and Gecko package for running HTML-based apps.

2. Once the wrapper is created, open it in Finder; right click and select “Show Package Content.”

You should see two folders: “Contents” and “drive_c” and a Wineskin app. Run the Wineskin app.

3. Select “Choose Setup executable” and select the executable file of the Windows application.

The installation will proceed just like it does in Windows.

Running Windows applications

Run the Wineskin app (from the Wrapper folder) again. This time, click “Advanced.” Browse and select the installed application and click “Test Run.” This will run the Windows application.

This is what the application will look like:

Once you are happy with the test run, the next time you can just double click the Wrapper app to open this application.

Conclusion

If you need a Windows environment in Mac, your best bet would be either using Bootcamp or to run a virtual machine. However, if all you need is a particular Windows application, using Wineskin is a better option (provided that the application is supported). If you have a lot Windows game in your collection, you will be happy to know that plenty of those older games are supported by Wine, and you can now play them on your Mac machine. Enjoy!

Damien Oh started writing tech articles since 2007 and has over 10 years of experience in the tech industry. He is proficient in Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and iOS, and worked as a part time WordPress Developer. He is currently the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Make Tech Easier.

6 Best Ways To Run Windows On Mac In 2021 (inc. M1 Macs)

Nowadays it has never been easier to run Windows on a Mac so we’ve looked at the best ways to do so in 2021 including on M1 Macs.

Installing Windows 10 on your Mac is useful for many reasons from running Windows only software to playing PC only games.

It’s also much cheaper and more convenient than buying a separate PC or laptop just to use Windows on.

However, there’s no doubt that some ways of installing Windows 10 on a Mac are much easier, reliable and effective than others.

We’ve taken a closer look at the different options available so you can decide which one is best for you.

Are There Any Risks Installing Windows on Mac?

Because installing Windows on a Mac involves separating it into either a virtual environment or a separate partition on your hard drive, there are absolutely no risks installing Windows on your Mac.

Running Windows on a Mac effectively isolates the rest of your Mac from any potential problems with viruses, malware or adware.

If the Windows installation were to get a virus or corrupted in some way, it wouldn’t damage macOS. You can simply delete the installation and reinstall it.

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With this in mind, here then are the best ways to install Windows on a Mac of 2021 in order of ranking.

1. Virtual Machine (Best For Beginners)

A virtual machine (also known as a virtual environment or virtualization software) allows you to run Windows “virtually” within macOS.

By far the two best virtual machines for Mac users are Parallels and VMWare Fusion.

There’s also VirtualBox which is free and open source but much harder to setup and use.

Although VMWare has improved a lot, we still think Parallels is the best way to run Windows on your Mac in 2021 for its ease of installation, speed, and the way it conveniently allows you to switch between macOS and Windows instantly.

You can even install Windows on a Mac for free with Parallels as you only need to purchase a Windows 10 activation key nowadays if you want to customize it.

Or if you already have Windows 10 installed on a PC, you can use the same 25 figure activation key during the Windows installation process in Parallels to get another fully activated copy for free on your Mac.

Virtual Machines are by far the most convenient Windows on Mac solution for most users because they allow you to use your Mac as normal but switch to a a Windows application at any time when you need it.

You have full access to the rest of your Mac apps while enjoying the convenience of having the Windows available too.

Parallels has got this off to a tee nowadays with Coherence Mode blurring the line between macOS and Windows so that you can work in both with almost no separation between the two.

Apple’s latest generation of Silicon Macs use a different ARM M1 chip and Parallels is the currently the only way to run Windows on Apple silicon M1 Macs.

The main rival to Parallels is VMWare Fusion which has now released a free version for non-commercial use but we’ve found that nothing comes close to Parallels in terms of ease of setup, use and support.

Parallels costs $79.99 for a home license or $99.99 for a Pro License suitable for developers, testers and power users.

For a limited time you can also get 50% off Parallels with an educational discount for students and teachers.

If you want to learn more, check out our full Parallels Desktop review.

Pros:

• Very easy to install Windows
• Runs Windows and macOS simultaneously
• Excellent for gaming
• Fast startup and shutdown time
• Optimized for macOS Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur and Windows 10
• Now supports DirectX and Metal
• Runs Windows on M1 Macs

Cons:

• Updates aren’t free
• Requires a separate license for each Mac you want to install it on
• Subscription pricing model
• Not yet officially compatible with Apple Silicon M1 chip Macs
• Can’t accelerate graphics card for gaming as well as Boot Camp

2. Apple Boot Camp (Best For Gamers)

By far the most popular alternative to installing Windows with a virtualization software is by using Apple Boot Camp.

Using Boot Camp to run Windows and install Windows only games is especially popular with gamers because Boot Camp leverages more power from your graphics card as it doesn’t have to run a virtual machine like Parallels does.

This makes playing games like Valheim on a Mac much smoother and less choppy as there are far fewer dropped frames.

Boot Camp is a free tool in macOS which allows you to install Windows on a partition on your Mac hard drive so you can choose whether to boot your Mac in either Windows or macOS.

The advantage of this is that it dedicates all of your Mac’s resources to an application which may require a lot of RAM or processing power such as CAD software, graphic design apps or games.

Because Boot Camp only allows your Mac to boot in either Windows or macOS (rather than running both at the same time as with a virtual environment) your Mac can devote all of its resources to the high demands of games and other power hungry applications.

The other big advantage of Boot Camp is that it’s free in macOS – just search for “Boot Camp” using Spotlight on your Mac and you’ll see it.

The disadvantage of installing Windows with Boot Camp is that you’re restricted to using either Windows or macOS at one time – you can’t switch between the two instantly like with virtualization software.

Finally, be aware that Apple has confirmed that Boot Camp will not work with Apple Silicon M1 Macs which is the new chipset and ARM processors that powers new Macs from late 2020 onwards.

If you are thinking of buying a new Mac in 2021, Boot Camp is definitely not an option if you want to install Windows on it.

If you’re also interested in other ways to play Windows games on a Mac, you may also be interested in GeForce Now For Mac which is a gaming platform by NVIDIA which allows Mac users to play Windows only games in the Cloud.